Arizona Cardinals

Arizona Cardinals: Return of Palmer won't change future plan

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 6:51 p.m. ET

Fansided, Scott Allen/FanSided via Raising Zona

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer announced his return on Thursday for the 2017 season

When the 2016 season ended, head coach Bruce Arians said the Arizona Cardinals would be looking for their future quarterback this offseason. That was before quarterback Carson Palmer announced his return.

Since Palmer announced his return on Thursday, that plan has not changed. Even with the return of Palmer, the Cardinals still need to plan for their future now.

One of my colleagues did a piece today on this being a bad year for quarterbacks in the draft. While he’s certainly not alone in that opinion, I disagree.

Everyone wants a Super Bowl-ready quarterback now. The fact is, that man doesn’t exist in most drafts. Just because that is the case doesn’t necessarily mean the draft class is a bad one.

For some it takes longer than others to develop their game or make the transition from college to the NFL. So few quarterbacks can call themselves Super Bowl-caliber.

Right now you can only include about 10-12 NFL starting quarterbacks that are ready to help their team on a run. Only about 5-6 of them are considered elite. I would consider Palmer in the top 12.

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As for the draft there are plenty of young quarterbacks that can be drafted and developed into a winner at the next level. Clemson’s Deshaun Watson and Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer come to mind.

Neither one of them are likely to come in and completely blow people away to start off with. That’s what makes one of them coming to the Cardinals perfect sense.

The same argument is being said for Pat Mahomes. There is a large contingent of Cardinals fans that want to see Mahomes, from Texas Tech, drafted by the Cardinals.

I get it, the kid has an arm. The problem for me is his ability to take snaps from under center. The same argument I make for others they make for Mahomes, he can learn how to do that.

That’s true, however that seems like a big thing to me. He’s thrown 25 interceptions over the last two seasons in just 25 games. He does have a great completion percentage though. It was 65 percent last season.

Of course the Cardinals could do a lot worse than Mahomes. I will give the argument that. The plan though is for the Cardinals to find their future starter now.

Palmer likely hangs it up after the 2017 season win or lose. There are no Andrew Lucks in this year’s draft. They aren’t duds either though. I trust the Cardinals to do the right thing.